Tuesday, 30 April 2013

Jackson, Miss. ranked 2nd among top 10 most dangerous U.S. cities for tornadoes

Jackson, Miss. ranked 2nd among top 10 most dangerous U.S. cities for tornadoes, If you are looking to avoid the danger from tornadoes, Mississippi's capital is definitely not the place to be. The Weather Channel released its top 10 list of the most dangerous cities in the United States for tornadoes and Jackson ranked number two.

Dr. Greg Forbes, an severe weather expert at The Weather Channel, released the list on Monday (April 29) as part of The Weather Channel's Tornado Week (April 29 to May 3), which is a week of non-stop tornado-related programming.

Forbes gathered data from the National Weather Service's (NWS) Storm Prediction Center between 1962-2011. He added up the areas of the tornado paths within 75 miles of the city highlighted, including the tornado damage path widths and lengths.

This methodology gives a more realistic probability of a particular location getting hit by a tornado than simply by using the raw numbers of tornado that have occurred within a metro area.

According to the National Climatic Data Center, Jackson and surrounding areas of Hinds County have been hit by tornadoes around 80 times since 1888 and 28 times since 2000, according to the NWS.

The tornadoes resulted in 90 deaths with more than half coming from a long-tracked and powerful EF-5 tornado in March 1966, referred to as the Candlestick Park Tornado.

The last time parts of the capital city took a direct hit from a tornado was just two years ago on April 15, 2011, when an EF-3 tornado tracked from the city of Clinton into western Jackson, leaving extensive damage and 10 injured.

The months of March, April and November are historically the most active for tornadoes in the Jackson area.

The top 10 list for most dangerous tornado cities:

1. Huntsville, Ala.

2. Jackson, Miss.

3. Birmingham, Ala.

4. Tuscaloosa, Ala.

5. Little Rock, Ark.

6. Tulsa, Okla.

7. Oklahoma City

8. Atlanta

9. Wichita, Kan.

10. Nashville

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